This is Spinal Tap cast and crew to reunite for 2024 sequel

Fabled rock mockumentary This is Spinal Tap is finally getting a sequel 40 years after its release.

• READ MORE: Harry Shearer on Spinal Tap’s Spinal Tap moment

The long-awaited Spinal Tap II is slated for release by Castle Rock Entertainment on 19 March 2024, on the 40th anniversary of the 1984 original.

The upcoming sequel will reportedly see Rob Reiner returning as director and fictional filmmaker Marty DiBergi. Also back are core cast members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), who together, make up England’s snazziest heavy metal act.

Guest, McKean and Shearer have previously reprised their in-film characters for TV specials and live gigs, even releasing an album, Back From the Dead, in 2009.

Speaking to Deadline about the film’s conception, director Reiner said, “The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, why don’t you do another one?”

“For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honour the first one and push it a little further with the story.”

The plot for Spinal Tap II will reportedly revolve around the death of the fictional band’s manager Ian Faith (played by the late Tony Hendra) and his surviving wife, who “inherited a contract that said Spinal Tap owed them one more concert.” So the boys have no choice but return for one last gig.

“All these years and a lot of bad blood we’ll get into, and they’re thrown back together and forced to deal with each other and play this concert,” Reiner explained. Fans can also keep their eyes peeled for “guest appearances” from bands and their misadventures over the years.

Though the original left audiences scratching their heads when it was released, This is Spinal Tap was deemed “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2002. The film will be screened as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinema de la Place sidebar on 18 May.

Earlier this month saw Ric Parnell, who played the fictional drummer Mick Shrimpton in This is Spinal Tap and toured with the crew in real life, die at the age of 70.